Halo's Cortana is one of the most "human" artificial intelligences to come along since Lt. Commander Data, and as such, her relationship with Master Chief is one of the more interesting facets of the Halo storyline. In this universe, AI tend to deteriorate past a certain age, and as Cortana has reached that age, there's been much speculation about her role in Halo 4. The premier trailer shown at E3 confirmed that Cortana will be struggling with artificial insanity during the game. How will Chief manage if his stalwart companion becomes increasingly unreliable? Can Cortana battle her impending obsolescence? As all good trailers do, this one left us hanging.

Eidos' Tomb Raider reboot is finally tearing back the veil over its gameplay, showing some of the tools young Lara Croft will have at her disposal as she undergoes the trial by fire that turns her into the daring adventurer we now know. Forget guns—bows and arrows are all the rage at E3 this year, starting with Lara's makeshift archery kit. In the trailer, Lara was shown sniping enemies from afar, knocking a guy off a cliff with the bow, setting her arrows ablaze, and even stabbing a guy in the neck with an arrow (ouch!). Never fear, she's still got her trusty shotgun and a healthy helping of the true grit that makes her a survivor.

She'll need that grit in spades for this game, as the later part of the gameplay demo showed Lara taking a nasty fall off a cliff, banging against tree branches along the way until she was finally able to open a parachute. Eidos appears to be nailing the balance between realism and fun here, with Lara taking lots of damage, yet still bing able to perform her trademark acrobatic feats. The new Tomb Raider is looking better all the time.

There you have it, five our our top highlights from the Microsoft E3 conference. What were your favorite moments?

ByBecky Cunningham
Contributing Writer
Date: June 6, 2012

*The views expressed within this article are solely the opinion of the author and do not express the views held by Cheat Code Central.*